That Was Almost Awesome...

Just came in 38th place of 4133th players in another $2 NL Hold 'Em tourney.

Got knocked out, on a bad play on my part: Called with my 10th place chip-stack, pre-flop, and ran into a brick wall:

All in all, though, this was a really good showing- if not a bit disappointing, seeing as I was at one point in 4th place, and on pace to win hundreds on this one...

Bleh... anyways, given the recent success I've had lately with tournaments, I think I'll be playing more of them now, despite the fact that they have greater variance than cash games.

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Current Bankroll: $30.38

Poker Hands That'll Make Me Die Young, Vol. 1

I'm down about five dollars today. Normally, I'd say that's to be expected, since I'm really a terrible poker player. However, recently, I'm not entirely too sure I'm to blame.

Observe:

So, right here, I've flopped a set of 4s. This is kind of like pulling into a parking lot and finding that there is exactly one spot open, right near the front entrance. However, being that I've been hitting bad beats for some time now with some regularity, I'm already bracing myself for the worst.

After pushing my set hard, there's one last guy in the hand with me. The turn shows a 10, which doesn't concern me too much, aside from the possibility of a straight draw. However, after pushing him in for so much, I don't see too much on the board that can beat me.

Another 10 hits on the river, giving me a full house, and while I believe that he might have hit trip 10s, I can't believe that he's going to have anything that beats my full house. So, finally, I push another maximum bet into the pot, while doing my victory dance, by the way. He calls and shows...

...

No way.

I could go back and detail exactly how awful a play this guy made in order to suck out the pot, but I think I might have an aneurism while typing it out.

And that, my friends, is poker, for all intents and purposes.

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Current Bankroll: $10.80

Progress Report: 7/16/09

Finishing 8 spots from the money in a tournament where you need to be 27th out of 2,700 or better to cash, is a lot like getting kicked in the balls with a steel-toed boot.

That being said, there were some good hands that I got to play in there, including my new signature hand, the "0 and 1, Inapporpriate Cop-A-Feel Special"

As you can see, sometimes you don't need to have the best hand to win pots. You also don't need to be particularly good at poker to bluff, apparently.

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Current Bankroll: $0.00